IBM to create 100 jobs with €25m investment

IBM will create 100 jobs in Dublin, Cork and Galway as a result of a €25 million IDA Ireland-supported investment in its Irish software labs.

Recruitment for the roles will begin immediately and it is expected the expansion will take three years.

IBM already employs about 4,000 staff in the Republic making it one of the biggest multinational technology companies here. It currently has about 500 staff in its software labs and this will expand to 600.

IBM has expanded its Irish operations in both good and bad economic times said Dennis King, the US firm’s vice president for advanced collaboration development.

“The Ireland lab is now part of the worldwide family of software group labs in IBM and you don’t start one of those lightly,” said Mr King. “It’s a long term investment and once you start one of them it’s for the long haul.”

Mr King said the decision to invest in Ireland was “purely merit-based” and that Irish staff had a track record of delivering projects.

The investment will focus on designing “cloud computing” software for large businesses, software to better manager IT systems, and databases that support business analysis.

“We are building on the success of what we have here, by getting these extra responsibilities, these extra missions, in these key areas”, said Michael Daly, general manager of IBM Ireland.

“It’s based on the fact that we’ve been doing this kind of work for a number of years successfully.”

The move follows a decision by IBM last February to move its high-end server manufacturing to Singapore with the loss of 120 jobs.